"The empty space is filled with intelligence, filled with knowledge, filled with love and compassion."

Questions & Answers

Did Gopis meditate? Whether they meditated or they did not meditate, how does it matter? It is an old story. But meditation has to be second to life; walking, talking, sitting, doing, everything you are in a state of meditation. Krishna did meditate, every morning, in his routine, he used to wake up at 4 o’ clock sit for one hour and meditate.
And then he would honor the scholars, and then 8’o clock he would take a round of the city, meet the general public and then in the evening he would celebrate in his style (with mischief).

Can dispassion and longing go together?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

They have to go together, that is wisdom. Longing is one side and dispassion is the other side. Where there is no dispassion, longing can turn into bitterness. If there is only dispassion, then there is no juice and we need some juice in life, some thrill, some fun. And spirituality is full of juice; full of thrill, enthusiasm, joy. Unfortunately spirituality is perceived as such a dull, boring, serious thing - it is never like that. The Divine is full of juice. It is juicy, and spirituality is so juicy. So anyone who has gone close to the Divinity, to the source has always become very juicy, not dry.

How can we realize the whole word is a game of the mind?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Oh! You have not realized that? Tell me, how many times your judgments have proved to be wrong? Many times? nearly 80% of the time all your judgments have been wrong; 90%? (Answer – 70% to 80%). Whenever you have a judgment about somebody then you found yourself wrong, right? So that has taught you it is all maya, right? Your mind teaches you that it is all maya. You sit and you have some fear, you have apprehensions, you imagine things and suddenly you find all that is all wrong. It is all the making up of your own mind. At that moment, ‘Oh ya this mind is maya’, and that is what is the play. Just look at your own mind, you look at somebody, you judge something and then your find out it is not true. All these wrong perceptions, understanding, concepts, wrong ideas and judgments are good enough to tell you your mind is an illusion.

What role does Karma play in our life?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Everything is karma my dear! You’re asking a question it is karma; karma means action. And to listen to your question - that is my karma. But then, to answer it or not is my choice and your karma, got it? Everything is karma.

We are using a very small percentage of our brain now, how to increase that?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You at the right place! And you will get exactly the right thing to increase the percentage.

Every thought that comes to the mind is either related with acquiring security or running away from security, so how to come out of this?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Is it so? Every thought! (Answer – 'Almost every thought')
Now you came from every thought to almost every thought, again analyze. (Answer – 'Not sure')
Not sure! So ‘not sure’ question does not get a ‘sure’ answer!
If you think you know your mind then you really don’t know and if you know you don’t know your mind then you really don’t know. So what you need to do is observe your mind, ‘Oh wow look at this mind saying so many things’, right. So in-between when your mind remains quiet, those quiet moments, even for a few seconds, few minutes, morning or evening or afternoon, anytime, you recharge your whole system, got it. Just being afraid of yourself or your situation in life is not going to make you any better or give you any security.
See you have been dependant when you were a baby right. Did you earn your own bread when you were 5 months old baby? Then nature put the thought in somebody’s mind to feed you. When you were a baby you were so dependant, right! You could not walk, 5 months old baby, where does it walk. So everything, you were dependant when you were born. And whomsoever you think my father, my mother, somebody will do, it is that one intelligence, that Divinity through those people it provided everything for you, right! Got it or not? Then you grew older, and you grew older and older and then much older and then again somebody has to help you out. So in-between these few years you think you are independent, it is just an illusion. Even then you are dependent on some unseen force or power which rules everything, which rules your breath, which rules your circulation, which rules almost every moment of your life. But in-between this age, in-between being too old or too young we think we are in control,that too only in your waking state of consciousness.You are not in control in your dream or your sleep also. If suddenly your breath stops coming in and going out of you while you sleeping, what to do! There is some power which propels the breath to keep moving in and out, yes! And that power, that consciousness has all intelligence of the world.
And when the cell phone came you start realizing there is a power in the space. See you take a cell phone, press some letters, some buttons and that’s it, that electromagnetic wave goes to America and types out the same message in that person’s phone box. Isn’t this a big miracle, we take it for granted. We don’t see that whatever was typed, that was absorbed as energy and that intelligence went through the space and is exactly being produced the same at the same spot. That means the space between this and the tower and the tower and the other tower is filled with knowledge. Are you getting what I am saying? This space around here is filled with all that knowledge in the world.
When I used to say this some 25 years ago, people would not understand. I was wondering how I am going to make them understand this. I said the space in-between is spirit. There is knowledge filled in every particle of space and I found it very difficult to explain this. But this cell phone has explained this very nicely.
First what came was the fax machine. I said,'See', whatever is written on this piece of paper we put is in the machine and it reaches the other place. So when the fax machine first came I said 'hah!, now I can explain' and after that with cellphones, it is so easy to see that you don’t have to explain so much. The empty space is filled with intelligence, filled with knowledge, filled with love and compassion. The space is breathing, that is what the reality is. The space is what constitutes your inner self.
So how is prayer beneficial? There is compassion in the consciousness all around you, you recognize it, and you feel it and it uplifts your consciousness, your mind. It mixes with your consciousness.

Gurudev, this space which is filled with consciousness, is that the Devi Tattva or the Shiva Tattva?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Both are one.

Gurudev, does anything called luck or bad luck exists? How to overcome bad luck?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

of course! When things happen the way you want everything to happen you say yes its good luck and when everything goes wrong you say it bad luck. How to overcome bad luck is to increase your intuition and how to increase your intuition if you ask me, MEDITATION!

Guruji when I think about death, I feel dispassionate. How can one remain a karma yogi in that situation?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Look, whatever you do with dispassion (vairaagya) that has a lot of power. We work not for ourselves, but for others. Okay. When we work for others we get a certain type of satisfaction.
We wish to acquire what we have not been able to get - this is called ‘Yoga’, and what we have got, we want to preserve/maintain – this is called ‘kshemam'(protection).
If our mind is empty, and we are in bliss then both these begin to manifest in life effortlessly, what we have not been able to get/achieve, that comes and what we have, remains preserved.
Okay, how many people have experienced this, whatever you wanted you got? And how many of you have felt that you don’t have to put much effort from your side. This is the sign of a Yogi. A Yogi does not have to make any effort to fulfil his desire but one has to perform his duties.
You know all that you want, your desires, intentions are being fulfilled right, before the desire or intention arises. So that is why Yogi gets the best of enjoyments because a Yogi’s state of consciousness is such that before the desire arises the fruit is already there. He doesn’t have to struggle too hard. So for one’s requirements whatever it is, you don’t have to struggle too hard. That doesn’t mean you have to be lazy, oh Guruji says Yogis don’t need to do any work, why should I do any seva, let me just lie down all day long, let everything just happen to me. You have to do your work, not to fulfill your own desires but because you have to do certain things. You should just do it.

Guruji sometime I doubt whether I am on the right path of spirituality?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

If you doubt sometimes, it is okay. If it is always there, then there is a problem. If you feel comfortable here stay on. Anyway, my job is not to take away your doubts but to increase them.